Herod Antipas 4 BC - 39 AD

Herod Antipas ruled the area of Galilee from 4 BC until 39 AD. One of his most famous building projects will be the founding of a new capital city called Tiberias. This coin commemorates this particular project with a reed on the Obverse. This type of reed was a common plant found near the Sea of Galilee. The placement of the city was a problem because it was put right over an ancient burial ground. Herod Antipas had to force people to live there at first. This coin would be a possible candidate for the Widow’s Mite but actually rather a remote one since it is a little heavier than the prutah size coins in common use at this time. It would however be a coin found on the moneychangers table.